Boomerang: British journalist calling for terrorism in Russia gets “played by Russian intelligence”

A British journalist published an article on Tuesday suggesting that Ukraine should destroy Russia’s newly-opened Crimean Bridge in the Kerch Strait, claiming that the construction of the bridge is an affront to Ukraine’s credibility.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the roads for cars and buses on the new Crimean Bridge. The bridge connects the Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar. It is the longest bridge in Russia, coming in at a length of 19 kilometers. The inauguration was scheduled for December 2018, but the builders completed the work well in advance.

However, the Russian venture does not seem to have pleased certain US media representatives. British journalist Tom Rogan has published an article on the US news website “The Washington Examiner,” criticizing the Russian government’s inauguration of the Crimean Bridge. In an effort to condemn the reunification of Crimea to Russian, which took place in 2014, the columnist claims that the construction of the bridge is an affront to the credibility of Ukraine as a nation. His proposal? That Ukrainian forces blow up the bridge.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the Kerch Strait bridge, linking Crimea in Ukraine to mainland Russia on Tuesday. Putin did this in a typical show of bravado while leading a column of transport vehicles on the other side of the bridge […] Ukraine must now destroy the bridge,” Rogan psychotically suggests.

In considering the consequences of his belligerent proposal, the journalist comes to acknowledge that the action would lead to retaliation by Putin, which would generate an escalation of violence and possibly war.

“While this course of action is escalating against Putin and one that will almost certainly trigger Russian retaliation, this bridge is an outrageous affront to the credibility of Ukraine as a nation. Of course, from Putin’s perspective, this is the main point. The bridge has cost the Russian government billions of dollars, but offers Putin a formal physical and psychological appropriation of Ukrainian territory,” says the journalist.

According to him, “breaking the bridge, even temporarily, would send an unmistakable signal from Kiev to Moscow that the Ukrainians are unwilling to accept the comfortable formalization of Putin’s territorial robbery.”

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In addition to air strikes on the bridge, Tom Rogan suggests that “the US could and should support Ukraine with the confidence of its military might.”

In a 2014 referendum, more than 90% of Crimeans chose to secede from Ukraine and be reinstated in the Russian Federation. Despite several accusations alleging an illegality of the decision, Moscow has repeatedly highlighted that the referendum in Crimea was carried out in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter.

It is worth remembering that it was the reintegration of Crimea into the Russian Federation that triggered the crisis between Russia and the West that continues to this day with sanctions. The United States and its allies do not recognize the results of the referendum.

Commenting on the fact that Putin inaugurated the Crimean Bridge piloting a truck, symbolizing a gesture of “nationalist supremacy” of Russia, the British journalist says “bombing the bridge would therefore be a very personal rebuke to Putin’s ambitions and his propaganda narrative.”

The Russian Embassy in the United States condemned Rogan’s “article”, arguing in a statement that “freedom of speech cannot justify incitement to commit terrorist acts” and that Rogan’s article goes “way beyond the boundaries of journalist ethics.”

Just today, May 18th, Tom Rogan tweeted that he “had a great conversation with” Ukraine’s foreign minister, who Rogan claimed said “the Ukrainian people supported my piece and that Ukraine would help me if Russia tries to send me to the Black Dolphin.”

Of course, as it has been since revealed, Rogan was not talking to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Klimkin, but was the latest victim of the Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexas. Klimkin called the affair “another Russia-led provocation”, and Rogan himself has since admitted that he “got played by Russian intelligence.”

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies. He has an MA in International Relations and is interested in Great Power Rivalry as well as the International Relations and Political Economy of the Middle East and Latin America.